Herger reflects on 26 years in Washington

Photo courtesy of Rep. Wally Herger

His Time - Thirteen term Rep. Wally Herger reflected on representing California's 2nd Congressional District for nearly 26 years.

Still a third-generation Sutter County farm boy at heart, 66-year-old Walter William “Wally” Herger, Jr., appeared to be in a mostly reflective mood Friday afternoon, Feb. 17, during a telephone interview from his second-story office suite in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

Elected in November 1986 to the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s mostly rural 2nd Congressional District, one of the state’s largest by area, Herger was just 40 when he and his second wife, Pamela, and the couple’s six children, ages 1 to nearly 16, made the long drive to the nation’s capital in two cars from their Rio Oso home, just south of Yuba City and Marysville.

“It was my responsibility to teach our oldest daughter, Robin, how to drive on that trip. She was just 15-and-a-half, but she had a learner’s permit,” Herger reminisced.

For almost 17 years, the Hergers lived near Washington, D.C., during the school year and spent their long summers traveling throughout his Congressional district in a motorhome.

“This is not a family-friendly job,” he said of public service. “When I’m in Washington, D.C., I always have three or four things going on at once. I am on a full run from early morning to late in the evening and I am away from my family a lot,” Herger explained of the often hectic schedule that involves committee meetings, endless floor votes and visits with constituents, whether in person or on the phone, while simultaneously working with staff members on drafting legislation or prodding into action some recalcitrant bureaucrat who is blocking economic development, free trade agreements or medical services for deserving veterans.

“This is the capital of the Free World and there is no place that has more excitement, both good and bad. I feel honored and privileged to have a job in which I help make decisions that affect so many people back home, throughout the country and around the world. But I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my wife of 36 plus years, Pamela, and each of our six children and 11 grandchildren,” Herger said.

The Hergers are expecting a 12th grandchild later this year and will likely be making more than one trip to Texas to get acquainted with the newest family member, he said.

“We also want to do some volunteer work for our church, said Herger, who at 20 was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When asked whether being in Washington, D.C., so long has changed him, Herger responded, “I think I’m basically the same person I was when I arrived here from Sutter County in January of 1987. I’m still a farm boy at heart. I still believe in patriotism, strong family values and the American Dream. But I have gained a lot of experience and I have learned a lot about the process of how legislation is created,” Herger said.

Swept in to office as part of the Reagan Revolution, Herger said, “Except for the fiasco we have going on in the Executive branch, we’ve seen much more fiscally conservative legislation enacted” in the last 26 years.

“There are several pieces of legislation that I am most proud of,” Herger said, mentioning in particular the eight years he served on the Budget Committee.

“Those last your years, from 1997-2001, we had balanced budgets. We also sponsored the “Criminal Welfare prevention Act” in 1996 as part of the Welfare Reform Law,” Herger added.

That latter piece of legislation prevented inmates from collecting state and federal assistance while incarcerated, saving taxpayers nearly $500 million per year. The legislation has reduced federal spending by nearly $7 billion since the legislation took effect, he explained.

A dyed-in-the-wool Republican, Herger also worked across the political aisle and cosponsored the Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act in 1998 with U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-San Francisco, that provided a framework for managing federal forests in Lassen, Plumas and Tehama counties to reduce vegetation density while expanding the biodiversity of the forest.

Currently being discussed at the subcommittee level in the House Natural Resources and House Agriculture committees, Herger is cosponsoring extending and expanding the pilot project to other U.S. Forest Service areas.

Among Herger’s regrets, however are the continuing growth of entitlement programs and their contribution to the federal deficit that is keeping the company in recession, he said.

“I wish that we could have avoided some of the wars we’ve had since 9/11,” Herger said almost wistfully.

However, passage of President Barack Obama’s 2,400-page health care bill counts as Herger’s biggest sorrow.

Herger characterized the bill as “one of the most significantly devastating pieces of legislation to ever come before Congress and no one had read it or even seen it before we were asked to vote on it.”

The health bill has contributed greatly to the nation’s recession and the lack of skilled medical care in many parts of the country, Herger said.

Herger hopes that long after he retires, the people of northern California will remember him as “someone who didn’t make a lot of promises but continued to work hard for the things I believed in and one who worked on behalf of every one of my constituents.”

Herger is quick to add that without a very capable staff, some of whom have worked for him since his election in 1980 to the California State Assembly, he would not have been nearly so successful in helping constituents.

“I will miss my staff immensely,” Herger said of the coming separation.

“Other than my wife, I work most closely with my staff. We all rolled up our sleeves and gave it 100 percent every day,” Herger said.

Working alongside 434 other members of the House, Herger said it was difficult to single any one person out as a close confidant or friend, but he admitted it has been a special honor to sit beside and get to know Congressman Sam Johnson, R-Richardson, Texas.

“For 29 years, he was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force who served in the Korean War and was later shot down while doing a tour in Vietnam. He spent nearly seven long years as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton. He is a true American hero,” Herger said of Johnson.

In 2009, Johnson’s peers recognized him as the “most admired” Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition, that same year the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor Society bestowed their highest civilian accolade, the National Patriot Award, on Johnson for his tireless work on behalf of the troops, veterans and freedom.

One thing Herger will definitely not miss are the five-hour plane rides and three-hour time shifts between his single-bedroom apartment in the nation’s capital and the Herger’s home, now in Chico, he said.

“Twenty-six years is a long time to have the privilege of serving here, but I think 26 years is enough,” Herger said of his pending retirement from public office.

Thankfully, he said, he is “blessed to be very healthy” and health factors played no part in his decision to retire.

But he challenged Americans everywhere to “keep up the fight for our freedom. Keep positive. This is the greatest country in the world. Be grateful that we are in America where you can disagree with someone and they don’t put you in prison like they do in Syria or North Korea.”